An inmate at the Arizona State Prison in Florence recently wrote the Tribune to say. I really love the religious section, as well as the rest of the paper. He signed up for a subscription in January and has devoured it. And he wanted us to maybe some day take time to do an article on prisoners serving Christ in prison.An inmate at the Arizona State Prison in Florence recently wrote the Tribune to say. I really love the religious section, as well as the rest of the paper. He signed up for a subscription in January and has devoured it.. And he wanted us to maybe some day take time to do an article on prisoners serving Christ in prison.Vic Shocinski said that during his incarceration, he has lost his parents and two brothers, but I will not lose my faith in God! Sure I failed in society, and Im so remorseful. He asserted that those who truly find God in the turmoil of prisons insanity are those that are likely to succeed! Vic says he has chosen to not lose in life anymore. Seeing prison life, he said he would like to be an instrument to make sure other dont make the wrong choices of coming in here. He said he got his prison sentence because of selfish desires and wants others not to make such a wrong choice.Actually, we have plans to follow an East Valley Catholic man who regularly goes into the prisons to minister to inmates, share his faith and nurture personal transformation. I hope it will be an article that will underscore Vic Schocinskis applause for this section.Matthew 25:36, of course, speaks directly of the noble work of paying prison visits:I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. Over the years, I have written about those who take on the daunting work of prison ministries. Some faith communities do remarkable work, while most are unable to develop a ministry or foster the people to sustain the work, which can involve long drives, navigating through many layers of prison security, traversing intimidating environments and risk being taunted and verbally abused. Often it is just one or two from a congregation who have made it their mission to take their faith to jails, share tenets of their religions and try to offer hope Through films and the media, of course, we have certainly seen countless prison and jail settings. I have done only a few visits to people behind bars for articles, always finding it surreal and disquieting. Whoever has toured old prisons like Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay finds it unnerving how cells are like rows of cages, ever under surveillance, dingy and forsaken. When I was a boy, my father took me to the county jail to bail out a farm hired hand who had been arrested for driving while intoxicated. It was not unlike the setting of the sheriffs office and jail setting in Andy Griffiths Mayberry.We know, of course, that environment pales to hellhole prisons across this planet where humans are dumped, given the minimum of care, hardened into bitter and beaten shadows of what they were and often violated in numerous ways regardless of what human rights provisions may officially be in force. A powerful book of my boyhood, The Count of Monte Cristo, by Andre Dumas gave me my first chilling descriptions of imprisonment for seven years and its life-draining experience.. More than 15 years ago, I interviewed Charles Colson, the convicted Watergate scandal operative, who founded Prison Fellowship, which quickly grew as result of his books and advocacy for the redemption of inmates. Colson explained that prison creates a true captive audience for transformation of a person. In materials he gave me and are still filed away, noted that reform of the offender is central to society. The orientation of punishment toward reform and rehabilitation of offenders is found throughout the Bible, as in Ezekiel 33:11: As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.And it further quoted Isaiah 42:6-7: I am the Lord I have called you in righteousness,I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you.And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As light to the nations,To open the blind eyes,To bring out prisoners from the dungeon,And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.In the newspaper business, oddly, we never know who may read what we write a prisoner or a governor, a multimillionaire or a poor single mom. And since Vic Shocinski may not have access to the Internet to read this blog, I herewith am sending him a copy of it by mail. May he find wealth in what we write and some assurance that we seek to even reach the hearts of those imprisoned.

Posted in: Uncategorized |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.